Whatever happened to The Man of Tomorrow? In the late ’70s, when Richard Donner and Mario Puzo were making their Superman movie, they realized that the lead character, when in costume, lacked a personality. He’s tough, he’s fast, he can fly, and those abilities define him. It may be impressive as spectacle, but it’s a hard lead for an audience to connect with, and so they chose to focus on Clark Kent — in short and in a bad pun, theirs was a classic because it was more Man than Super. Now, with Man of Steel, Snyder, and his writers David S. Goyer and Christopher Nolan, do precisely the opposite.

The film opens with the usual prologue, though seeming far more extended here, on Krypton. Jor-El (Russell Crowe) is arguing with the planet’s elders about mining the core of their world — he warns them that the planet has only weeks left before it implodes, and as soon as he’s dismissed, General Zod (Michael Shannon) appears and starts blowing the elder’s palace up. Jor-El escapes to his wife Lara (Ayelet Zurer), who has just given birth to their son, Kal-El, Knowing the planet is doomed, they place him in a shuttle and shoot him off to earth, but not before Jor implants a whatsit codex into the ship.

Zod attempts to intercept the shuttle, killing Jor-El in the process, but is overpowered, tried, and sentenced to the Phantom Zone, a kind of black-hole prison. Krypton implodes, and Kal makes his way to earth, specifically to the Kansas farm of Jonathan and Martha Kent (Kevin Costner and Diane Lane), who adopt the boy and impart to him the lessons of compassion and anonymity. I will say that it’s clever of Goyer and Nolan to handle Kal-El’s childhood in flashback, lest we sit through another hour or so of an origin story whose end we already know.

As of the time of this writing it is still January, 2013 and all we have seen from Zack Snyder’s Superman film is a couple of teasers and a couple of posters. Why then, you ponder, am I already dismissing the film as a misstep from the Brothers Warner?

I am ready to cast off hopeful anticipation of this film because yesterday the final nail in the coffin was resoundingly hammered in. David S. Goyer spoke to Empire Magazine and had this to say:

“We’re approaching Superman as if it weren’t a comic book movie as if it were real…  I adore the Donner films. Absolutely adore them. It just struck me that there was an idealist quality to them that may or may not work with today’s audience. It just struck me that if Superman really existed in the world, first of all this story would be a story about first contact. He’s an alien. You can easily imagine a scenario in which we’d be doing a film like E.T., as opposed to him running around in tights. If the world found out he existed, it would be the biggest thing that ever happened in human history.”

Soak that in boys and girls, the most iconic comic book character of all time is going to be presented (once again) as if he were not a comic book character starring in a comic book movie.

Fans of Zack Snyder’s upcoming Superman flick Man of Steel (although, not sure how one can be a fan since it hasn’t been released yet) will have to wait a little longer to get their fix.

Warner Bros. announced that the movie will open June 14, 2013 instead of in December 2012. Hopefully that won’t upset too many Superman fans who’ve been awaiting a new Superman movie since 2006’s Superman Returns Superman IV: The Quest for Peace Superman III for a long time.

The good news, if you haven’t heard it yet, is that Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer, the dream team behind Batman Begins and The Dark Knight are still attached and working on the script. And, if you need your DC crack until then, there’s always The Dark Knight Rises, coming out next year.

Man of Steel stars Henry Cavill (The Count of Monte Cristo) as Superman, Amy Adams (Catch Me If You Can) as Lois Lane, Diane Lane and Kevin Costner as Martha and Jonathan Kent, and Michael Shannon (Boardwalk Empire) as General “Kneel Before!” Zod. Russell Crowe is reported to be in final talks as Jor-El.

Obviously, we’ll be following this one pretty closely.

Bradley Cooper is a hot commodity right now. Whether he’s exploring his potential in Limitless, being eyed to play The Flash in David Goyer’s upcoming film for Warner Bros., or taking on yet another blackout in The Hangover Part II, everyone seems to want a piece of him.

Now the action/comedy star is being eyed for the lead role in Juan Carlos Fresnadillo’s upcoming remake of The Crow. A bit darker than his normal role, but we can still see it happening. THR has the lowdown.

In the adaptation of the gritty black-and-white indie comic by artist James O’Barr, Cooper will play a rock musician who is murdered while trying to save his fiancée from thugs. He is resurrected by supernatural forces and seeks revenge. The role was originally played by Brandon Lee, who was killed by a freak accident during production in 1993.

Relativity is flying fast with Crow, with Fresnadillo only officially boarding the project a week ago. The Spanish director of 28 Weeks Later is said to have met with Cooper in Spain recently, where the two hit it off and shared a vision for the character and the film. Relativity would not confirm the talks but sources say Cooper, currently in theaters in Relativity’s hit thriller Limitless, is keen to board the project.

The film is set to start in the Fall, and could have a completely different take on the classic tale that gave teens an excuse to wear black leather and nail polish back in the 90s. Let’s hope Fresnadillo can still get Ernie Hudson to reprise his role.

In what must surely come as a relief to many of you (especially our own Matt Raub) we will be seeing a sequel to 2007’s Ghost Rider. But wait, there’s more. Nicholas Cage will reprise his role in the film and the directors of Crank and Crank 2, Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, are in early negotiations to direct the new film.

The sequel, known currently as Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance and based on the Marvel Comics character, will continue the story of stunt motorcyclist Johnny Blaze who, in order to save the life of a loved one, makes a deal with the devil. Because of this he becomes half-man, half-demon (complete with flaming skull) and rides his motorcycle delivering justice the old fashioned way.

Plot details for the sequel are currently not known but what we do know is none of the original characters from the first film are probably going to be coming back for the sequel, except Cage’s of course. However, as negotiations go forward, that may change. We also know David S. Goyer is working on a script and that Neveldine and Taylor may also take a crack at a rewrite.

As much as I’m not personally very excited for this movie I do think Neveldine and Taylor are talented guys. Maybe they can do for Nicholas Cage and Ghost Rider what they did for Jason Statham and Crank? Let’s hope so because if the sequel is anything like the first movie, it will be a sad day indeed.

With the departure of Marc Guggenheim, this leaves me a little dismayed with FlashForward and last night’s episode was a bit of departure and not that good. It did, however, expand on some characters, rather than just focusing on Fiennes and Cho. We spent time getting to know Courtney B. Vance’s character of Stanford Wedeck, who is Head of the FBI LA office, and Christine Wood’s character Janis Stark.

We open on Fiennes, Cho, Vance and guest star Barry Henley as Agent Vreede, walking out of some building.  Fiennes and Vance are talking and Vance says something about not telling anybody anything about his [Fiennes] flash forward or they are”d.o.a.” Fiennes is on the phone with Janis Hawk telling her something about funding.  Getting into a car, they are immediately set upon by a black SUV and hit with a Rocket Propelled Grenade blowing up the car, seemingly killing all four inside.

Cut back 39 hours, and the four of them are in a basement taking a lie detector test. Apparently they are in Washington, D.C for a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on what the various  agencies are finding on the black out case, and they have to take the test for the hearing.  After the test, Fiennes talks with his sponsor who tells him to go to AA meeting which Sophia Walger overhears the sponsor talking about while he fixes some stuff around the house.  He’s apparently helping them out around the house while Fiennes is away doing document support for Vance in DC.

This week’s episode opens on the day of the FlashForward in a park, with some weird-ass Bjork playing over the background. In this opening you witness everyone pass out, some planes explode and a bus drive into a pond.  In the bus, the blacked out people are drowning except for one guy who rescues a blonde.

And now this guy, Ned, is at the hospital being interviewed for some internal bruising by Dr. Olivia Benford and her resident surgeon Bryce who before the blackout was trying to kill himself. Bryce asks what Ned saw in his flash forward which was seeing himself as a black man, which is pretty strange considering Ned is about as white as Kenneth the Page from 30 Rock.

Cut to back at the Benford house where Joseph Fiennes does some Dad-humor with an egg that I didn’t really understand and Olivia makes a crack about him not exactly being the Shakespeare of Dad-humor. Considering his role as Shakespeare in Shakespeare in Love, this was a little cringe-worthy.

As a new feature here on The Flickcast, Dave Press, who normally does our comic book recommendations, will be doing recaps of some of our favorite TV shows. Enjoy — Ed

The new Lost clone brought to us by Batman Begins writer David S. Goyer and Star Trek Deep Space Nine creator Brannon Braga is actually better than Lost. Which is really not hard to do. You know the premise: the entire planet blacks out for 137 seconds and everyone sees their individual futures for the date of April 29, 2010.

Joseph Fiennes, Shakespeare himself from the Oscar winning Best Picture Shakespeare in Love, leads a team of FBI agents that includes Seth McFarlane and “New Sulu” John Cho, to investigate the blackouts.

The first episode starts with Fiennes and his team encountering their blackouts. Fiennes, in his blackout, sees his board  in his office with various random and completely ridiculous names and numbers and pictures creating a mosaic of clues. As of the first episode his character is a recovering alcoholic, and as he drinks in his flash forward, his office is being invaded by Dead Presidents with machine guns and laser sights. Spooky.

Fiennes’s wife, played by Sonya Walger, sees herself with another man, which disturbs her and causes tenson between her and her husband. John Cho’s character doesn’t see anything, which frightens him to the point of thinking that he won’t be alive on April 29.